Chameleon hues to drive away the Monday blues

Who would have thought of sighting this beautiful creature on Monday morning. My neighbour Showkath's driver got it from Somamangalam in a box. When we let it out it was not trying to make a dash into the garden or run for its life. Instead it was carefully observing its new environment with its awesome eyes and moving in almost slow-motion fashion. The eyes work independently of each other giving the creature an almost 270 to 300 degree viewing angle. Like a telephoto zoom the eyes can also be zoomed out or zoomed in. It was constantly at it. I'll post the videos later. Here's another close-up. Click on all the images to view them big sized.

Trying to make it turn red we ambitiously even put him on a plant flowering red flowers but our new neighbour didn't oblige. Earlier we had put him on a shrub with yellow flowers and then there was magic. Notice the eye socket and body color change yellow.

The creature attracted a small crowd and it had us entertained for almost an hour.

We saw it last in my garden. Wonder where it is now. Was keeping it a pet, an opportunity lost?

Very Impressive - Harmonize Projekt

So what can remove the writer's block in me? A musical performance as this of course! The Rosebowl Channel (I don't know how to get that channel here in Chennai) in Kerala has been churning out performances as this a dime a dozen. Sadly you'll have to be in Kerala to watch this channel. It was on this channel that I discovered Avial many years ago. And this year they did it yet again with performances by the Harmonize Projekt.

When I read about them in The Hindu I forgot to check them out but I find every reason to include a reivew of the perfomances here. If you like cover versions then you must watch them or listen to them. They are making waves on the Internet, particularly on YouTube. Their treatments to some originals make the originals sound even better though not all their experimentation goes down well with me particularly when their innovation takes out the original flavor. But otherwise their covers only deepen the existing flavors of a song making it more beautiful and that's their magic. Kalyani Nair has a great voice and she impresses with her singing. The minimal but good support from the musicians is to be appreciated too.

Here are videos to watch, ranked from best to the not-so-best. But all of them impress, nevertheless.






Lovely slide guitar solo on this one.

Don't be fooled by this trick from Airtel

If you use a smartphone and are trying to downgrade your 3G plan with Airtel, a trick is going to be played on you which may force you to not downgrade or if you have to upgrade back to your older higher priced plan, but don't fall for this trick.

Two months ago I realised I was using an average of 150 MB of their Monthly 450 plan which allows a total upload+downlad limit of 650 MB per month. So I call cusotmer service and downgrade to the 200 plan which allows a 250 MB upload+download limit per month, sufficient enough for my 3G usage. A few days after I made this change I get a call from a third party company telling me that as per information that Airtel has provided them I have already exceeded my limit by 45 MB. There was no way that could have happened. I hadn't made any unusual usage of the internet on my phone. The guy on the phone also told me that it will cost me Rs.15 per excess MB of usage. It was ridiculous. I took down his number and called Airtel. To my surprise my Airtel usage until then was just 3 MB. But the annoying part was this. Airtel tells me that I have to wait till the end of my billing cycle to find out how much my exact usage was. If that was the case how did they tell their third party that I had already exceeded my usage by 45 MB. Something was clearly wrong! I wasted valuable hours for the next three days and in vain. Finally I even stopped using my 3G till I got my bill. When the bill came I was amazed. There wasn't any significant change in charges. What a waste of my time and efforts.

I then wait for my next month's bill and I notice the change due to the downgrade. My bill slashed down by Rs.500 by moving to a lower plan which was perfect for me.

A few days after this bill arrived I again get a call from the third party saying I have again exceeded my bill by that same 45 MB amount. This time it was obvious something was fishy. When I called Airtel customer support I gave them the number of the third party and the lady answering the phone (Airtel support) even told me some marketing guys must be doing it. Just as she was saying that I could hear someone blurt out something at her end. Was it some manager telling her to shut up! The connection was terminated immediately without the usual "..Thank you for calling Airtel. Have a nice day." Really odd and something I never expected from Airtel whose service I have always enjoyed.

A boquet in the sky

I was wondering what that big dash of red in the sky was, when I rode past the tree. This Gulmohar had more flowers than leaves. I am sure other than the rains it was hardly being watered. Couldn't resist the temptation of taking a picture.

Where are "I" now?

Well it seems like "ages" since I touched my personal blog or any of my other blogs or writings but I have a big excuse. I have been very busy like everybody else but a little more busier, trying to sell my home and move closer to my son's school's new location which is 20km from where we currently reside. So much has happened since I last wrote but managed to squeeze in a 4-day-trip to Kerala in the thick of the monsoon there. Wasn't it beautiful to watch the rains there. Fortunately Chennai has been receiving some sharp showers too once in a while.

Hope to get back soon with tons of posts. There is so much to write afterall.

What was good and bad about Kailash Kher's concert last night

It was my first visit to Mutha Venkatasubbarao Concert Hall inside the Lady Andal School on Harrington Road, yesterday.

As for the concert hall the acoustics were superb. If only the air-conditioning was distributed fairly well in all places the audience wouldn't have had to scream "AC, AC" towards the end of the show. The organizers also seemed to have done a stellar job organizing the event with lots of volunteers and security.

And now for the concert. First the good things.
Kailash was wonderful with his voice and sang with total ease and comfort. His singing was very good. His simplicity and down-to-earth openness won the hearts of the audience.

And now the bad things that actually was a big let-down.
1. Where was the drums? Though most of the songs in the evening were the slow numbers I missed his rockers. And without drums songs like "Tauba Tauba" sounded awful. The very presence of a drum kit, and the sounds that emanate from it, the crash of the cymbals, the sounds of the high-hat, the bass drum, the snares and the toms, would have altered the sound of the show. But where were they?

2. Awful lighting. - Whoever was managing the lighting was doing such a shitty job. A kid could have done better considering how many different types of lights the concert hall had. Most of the time we could hardly see Kailash's face during the performances. The band was playing in total darkness most of the time. I wonder how the stringed instrumentalists were able to see what strings and frets they were playing had they wanted to look at them.

3. A little more emphasis on the lead guitar would have made a difference too. Not that the lead guitarist had time for solos but whatever he was playing was not audible enough, particularly in "Tauba Tauba".

4. Finally Kailash failed to play some classic rockers such as "Chaap Thilak" and "Rang Rang Ma". I also wanted to hear "Daulath Shohrath".

So without the drums this concert scores low in my opinion but the modesty and the singing prowess of Kailash can never be denied.